1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to packaging of the tray type for a plurality of individual articles, particularly pots containing fresh milk products such as yoghurts or similar.
Numerous embodiments are already known of packaging devices formed from a cardboard blank shaped as a case which envelopes totally or partially a plurality of articles joined together at the time of manufacture, e.g. pots of yoghurts or other milk based products, and which are disposed in the package in assemblies of pots superimposed on each other. If, on the other hand, it is desired to combine in a packaging device not containers joined together, but unit containers which must be held simply and reliably in said package from their manufacture to their purchase by the user, on the one hand, and to be able to be readily taken hold of individually by said user, on the other hand, said device being further of sufficiently low cost to make economic use thereof possible, then difficulties arise which cannot be overcome by known devices for packaging containers initially joined together at the time of their manufacture. Such is further the case for unit containers or holders which, like the fresh milk product packages, are plastic material pots having at their upper part a bead, for heat sealing a cover, projecting radially about the opening of the pot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To solve the problem raised, the patent FR-A No. 2 570 351 has already proposed for example a device of the tray type comprising a flat part pierced with orifices for maintaining each container transversely in position, as well as means for axially and unidirectionally holding said containers in position. Although such a device is satisfactory for holding containers, it can however only be manufactured from a large sized blank and is thus costly in raw material, since the device comprises a surface parallel to that having the transverse holding openings, on the one hand, and since, on the other hand, additional material zones are provided for joining together the last mentioned surface and the plane with the openings so as to form a case structure. In addition, the device described in said document is not provided for allowing the superimpositioning of trays one on the other in the same simple-to-use package, in particular as far as its closure is concerned.
A device has also been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,202 for packaging individual containers, in this case beer cans, comprising a cardboard blank with a surface formed with orifices through which said containers pass and grooved along two lines defining two strips which, after folding, form two short parallel flaps with tongues provided by the cut-outs forming said orifices in the blank and erected opposite the flaps. A device in accordance with this patent does not make "tray" presentation possible, coherence of the package being obtained by the beer cans bearing against each other at their lower portion distant from their support by the tongues.
The problem exists then of providing a packaging device of the tray type, but of a sufficiently simple structure so as not to increase its cost prohibitively on the one hand, and, on the other hand, well adapted to the formation of "tray" packages superimposed by using a wrapping enveloping them at least partially.